Pro Evolution Soccer 4

Times Online

The intuitive control system and fluidity of the movement are of the highest standard and this year’s model includes a bag of new dribbling tricks, which are worth practising in the training mode. Even the referees have received an upgrade.

AceGamez

The gameplay itself is amazing and, as far as football games go, this is the best. Everything feels so smooth, the players move so fluidly and the ball moves like a prowling, elegant cat. The game oozes quality; passing the ball between characters feels superb.

Sydney Morning Herald

Pro Evo remains the more accurate depiction of the game. The ball behaves even more convincingly than before and player animation is refined. Team-mate intelligence is sharper, with players often making defence-breaking runs, but success requires a patient, fluid and precise passing game.

RewiredMind

Sports gaming heaven. Anyone who calls themselves a football fan and who has the want to play a football game, should pick this up. Pretenders to the throne come and go, and will doubtless continue to be released, but it is all about the GAME, dammit. It isn't about your licences.

Australian GamePro

Like no other game, is PES4's ability to make you burst with pride - watching in complete satisfaction a stunning exchange between your midfielders leading into a stoppage time game-winning goal - the crowd lifting with your success. It makes you feel like you are really part of the action - it makes you feel like a Soccer God.

Loaded Inc

Referees in PES4 are actually reliable, 90% of the time correctly deciding between letting play continue and giving a foul. The advantage rules now work perfectly.

BBC Sport

Greater emphasis has been placed on one-touch play, and while goals are not all that easy to come by - creating chances requires quick thinking and accurate distribution - when you do manage to make the net bulge, it's all the more satisfying.

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Whilst still not perfect, PES4 has bar far the most realistic ball control and physics engine out of all the other competitors, and indeed others in the same series.

RealGamer

Where it’s possible to win games in "FIFA" 5-0 every time you play such scores in Pro Evolution Soccer 4 are rare as the game challenges you, forces you to be patient and think about passing the ball making the game the most accurate recreation of the nations most loved sport.

Boomtown

The improved volleying will probably provide the most satisfaction. It is extremely satisfying to send back a weak clearance, with interest, with a driven shot from outside the area that dips dramatically as it hits the back of the net.

GamerArchive

The uncanny ability to create all the atmosphere, the tension, and the sheer joy that real football inflicts upon millions the world over once again takes another step up to the nigh on perfect.

Computer and Video Games

Once you've tasted PES 4's tantalising delights there's just no going back. Nearly everything that slightly irked us about the greatest football game ever made has been eradicated, while everything else has been transformed into a diamond-encrusted slice of footballing heaven. Most notable is the long overdue re-introduction of the glorious through-ball.

Edge Magazine

Whether or not PES 4’s worth it for you depends on how much you got from "Pro Evolution Soccer 3," whether you’re the sort of person who devotes lifetimes of evenings to Master League progress or whether you just like a kickaround between games of "Halo." [Dec 2005, p.115]

GameCritics

It's still the same, but still changing; still getting better, but still not perfect. To my mind, Darwin's theory has rarely seemed more beautifully apt.

Play.tm

Whilst PES4 is undeniably brilliant, it also hints at the fact that in an effort to justify updating the series, Konami have had to change the formula to an extent that it's on the verge of losing sight of what made it so great in the first place.

Eurogamer

When we score a goal in PES4, we do, even if it's just for a split second, feel like we've really put one past the other team. On a football pitch. It's suspension of disbelief. It's also proof more than anything that PES4 was designed by football brains for football brains.

Total Video Games

Continues the series tradition of not only capturing the spirit of football, but creating one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences possible - football doesn't get any better then this.

Thunderbolt

A masterpiece.

IC-Games

So what if the graphics and sound aren’t breathtaking, it’s just further proof that looks alone certainly do not make a classic game...simply nothing beats Konami’s offering in pure gameplay.

Gamestyle

All that was needed was a small amount of tightening up with the tackling and a few other issues; instead it seems they have used a wrecking ball where a screwdriver would have done.

eToychest

Slight enhancements to a proven formula have been made, sure, but no evangelical improvements that would win over "FIFA" fans are among them. This will satisfy Pro Evo fans appetite for more of the same.

TotalGames.net

We're getting tired of the scripted gameplay, the way that the computer compensates a team for having a man sent off or that your world class striker can't tap the ball into an open goal from one yard out. We feel really let down by that name and license thing - still - and there's no Network Play even though the Xbox version has Live support. [Play UK]

GameBiz

Delivers realistic gameplay and a deep, entertaining Master League mode with some innovative ideas, it is poorly presented and lacks in a few areas.